


running, running

by slightlied



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternative Universe - Neverland, Immortality, Lost Boys AU, M/M, Magic & Fantasy Elements, Mermaids, Pirates, YOI Nautical Zine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-05
Updated: 2018-05-05
Packaged: 2019-05-02 11:14:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14543496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slightlied/pseuds/slightlied
Summary: Phichit was breathless, something ballooning in his chest. Something like excitement and desire. Something like longing. Grown-up words. He leaned forward.“Lee Seung-Gil,” he said intensely. “Please be our best friend and please tell me about Isaac Newton.”Lee Seung-Gil leveled him with an unreadable expression. Phichit’s survival instincts were telling him to lean back and retreat, abort mission, swim across The Lagoon and turn himself over to the pirates. Instead, he forced himself to move even closer.“Uh,” Lee Seung-Gil said. “I am pretty sure that is not how you ask someone to be your best friend.”or: seunggil shows phichit what it's like to remember. phichit shows seunggil what it's like to never forget.





	running, running

**Author's Note:**

> this was my piece for the [yoi nautical zine](https://yoinauticalzine.tumblr.com/) for which we ended up raising $17,000 to donate to the coral reef alliance!! i'm super happy to have been a part of the project and encourage you to check out the other fics and artwork that came out of this zine :) 
> 
> anyway this fic is a bit different from what i usually write genre-wise (and prose-wise, too, a bit, i think) but i really love this 'verse and hope you enjoy! thank you to [nica](https://nicaforov.tumblr.com/) for the beta, i lov u.
> 
> title is from 'there for you' by troye sivan
> 
>  **[slight content warning!]** there's a mention of a minor (really minor, like super minor) character's death. it should be fine but i figure i'd give a heads up?? this is my first time having a death in my writing?? omg. oh oh! there is also a small animal death :( they go hunting but it is not graphic!! 
> 
> also this is a lost boys au... so, there are existential crises about immortality and leaving ur old life behind. u know, the usual. ok cool i think thats all of it ! enjoy

✦ ✧

 

The first thing Phichit thinks is that the new Fallen is old. At least, he looks old. It’s jarring. The only times he has used the word “old” to describe someone since arriving in Neverland are when he visits The Town with Leo and Guang-Hong to help them trade items. There are a lot of old Townspeople. Their skin is wrinkled and their hair is thin and their balls are saggy. That last one, Phichit can’t completely confirm, but the Uncles who play board games by the market complain about it enough. 

“You better thank your stars you’ll never have to deal with this, kid,” one of them said once, when he caught Phichit staring. He was sitting cross-legged on a ratty blanket on the ground, gut of his belly sticking out of his shirt. He squinted at Phichit with the one eye that wasn’t covered in milky-white film. “How old’re you, anyway?”

One of the other uncles snorted. “You don’t ask a Fallen how old they are, Hideki.” 

“Jeez Kenji, you know what I mean, I was asking about how old he _was_ when he, you know—“

“Nineteen,” Phichit mumbled. He doesn’t remember much else about the stuff in his life from before, before Neverland and home. But he remembers _Phichit Chulanont. Nineteen years old. I wanna win gold someday._

Hideki cooed. “Aw well aren’t you cute. You barely look sixteen, kid.” 

“Stop with the _kid_ ,” Kenji grumbled. “I’m pretty sure he’s been here since your coming of age, he’s not your junior.” 

Phichit’s eyes widened, darting back towards Hideki, at the loose skin hanging off his shoulders, at his bad back, at his cloudy eye. 

“Oy, oy,” Hideki muttered. He gave Phichit a meaningful look. 

_You better thank your stars._

Phichit thought about it later, on the way back home with Leo and Guang-Hong at his side, barely paying attention as they chattered about their gains. Thought about it again when he lay back in his cot that night, looking out through the little window opening next to him. At the night sky, at the second star to the right. At the world where all of them have supposedly Fallen from. 

He doesn’t remember when he Fell— _been here since your coming of age, not your junior, not your junior, bad back and a cloudy eye, and here you are barely looking sixteen, kid_ —doesn’t remember much of anything, because the days bleed together and the nights are too blurry. He had looked at the stars and held his tongue. 

 

✦ ✧

 

Phichit thinks about it again now, staring at the boy surrounded by sand and starfish and seaweed. Because this guy, _this guy,_ jeez, he’s… something.

He’s not actually old, Phichit knows, because they’re always young. It’s some sort of curse; all the Fallen are immortalized in their youth, frozen in a place where time doesn’t exist for anyone except for The Townspeople, who have originated from it. So you’re immortal if you’re Fallen. And if you’re a mermaid, because you’re magical. If you’re a pirate, because no one really knows where they came from, just that their crew kept sailing and sailing once, never looking back, before stumbling upon this place and now they can’t leave. So they’re here. Committing petty crimes at The Town and spooking the mermaids and getting their asses kicked by Yurio and Otabek and their forest friends on a daily basis.

The youngest is Kenjirou, who came at thirteen. Phichit’s technically the oldest at nineteen, but Victor’s been here the longest out of all of them. He was the first Fallen, was alone for a long time. Fighting the pirates by himself. Always calculating what day of the week of the month of the year it was before giving up entirely. Now there’s so many of them, so many that Kenjirou can’t even count that high. 

It’s always the same: 

The second star blinks, bright and brighter, for a whole night. When morning comes—a new Fallen. No one ever actually _sees_ them Fall. They just turn up in random places, hair disheveled, eyes bleary, memory clinging onto only three to five solid facts. Phichit had Fallen at the base of the waterfall of the Lagoon, surrounded by fish tails and Yuuri’s smiling face and a fresh batch of Leo’s morning rolls. 

This boy has turned up at the shore. 

His face is soft and pretty, except for the harsh snarl in his mouth. And his eyes, they don’t dart around at his surroundings all panicky and confused. They open slowly while everyone murmurs around him, hunched over his lying form. They give him space when he sits up, turn quiet when he scans their faces. He looks out into the sea, blinks twice, stares at the horizon for a few moments. When he turns back, Phichit meets his eyes for a split second before they’re closing again. He leans his head back against the sand. 

“How long have I been out,” he sighs out, and Phichit almost trips himself straining to hear him. His voice is so deep and quiet. 

They share looks with each other. Kenjirou is standing closest to him, gripping a blanket in his hands. It’s what he does, he brings the blanket, because he thinks blankets are nice and warm and welcoming. 

It’s always the same: 

Kenjirou’s blanket then Leo’s morning rolls then Yuuri explains What Happens Now, while Victor shows off fancy tricks in the background because he’s the only one the forest fairies will give pixie dust to. 

This guy, though, looks content to stay where he is, tangled up in seaweed and resting against the sand. There’s still a snarl in his mouth. Kenjirou looks back at them uncertainly.

_He does not look Blanket-Friendly,_ his face is saying.

Yuuri speaks up. 

“Sara and Mickey spotted you. We came right away. What’s your name?” 

“Lee Seung-Gil.” 

Lee Seung-Gil tucks an arm behind his head and says something else under his breath. Kenjirou makes a noise of excitement as he leans forward to listen.

_He’s counting,_ he mouths at the group. He turns back. “How high can you count?” he asks eagerly. 

There are rips in Lee Seung-Gil’s trousers. Phichit watches, mesmerized, as he drums his fingers against his bare thigh. They continue counting for him, _tap-tap-tap,_ as he answers Kenjirou’s question. 

“Forever, probably. Sixty seconds in a minute. Sixty minutes in an hour. Twenty-four hours in a day. Eight-six thousand and four hundred seconds in a day. So you would just keep going. _It does not matter how slow you go so long as you do not stop._ Confucius. I could keep going, on and on. One hundred-seventy two thousand and eight hundred seconds... on and on. How long am I here?” 

Silence. Kenjirou’s jaw has dropped wide open. Yuuri’s smile is frozen on his face. Phichit’s gripping his arm, _tap-tap-tap,_ eyes not moving away from Lee Seung-Gil’s fingers. Trying to keep up with his rhythm. Too overwhelmed to process his words. 

Victor speaks this time, eyes narrowed and a frown tugging at his mouth. “Forever, probably,” he repeats dryly. 

Lee Seung-Gil’s fingers stop. 

He sits up again to stare at all of them. Kenjirou steps forward, tries to offer the blanket. 

“No,” Lee Seung-Gil says. Kenjirou steps back. “Forever? No, I can’t do that.” He says it like he was asked to help Leo with chores, or Sara with hunting. _Can’t do it sorry. Oh, okay it’s no problem I’ll go ask someone else, thanks._

Victor has a problem. “Why not?”

“I’ve got things to do.” Lee Seung-Gil stands up, dusts his hands on the covered part of his thighs. 

_Can’t do it, second star. Oh okay no problem I’ll go take someone else, thanks. Alright cool bye Neverland._

“Like what?” Victor challenges. He’s about ready to fly into the air, Phichit can tell, just so he can be looking down at Lee Seung-Gil from mid-air. He looks—amused, irritated. Yuuri’s curling a hand over his shoulder, brushing back strands of his long silver hair to try and soothe him.

“Like calculus homework,” Lee Seung-Gil says with a dirty look. “Dry cleaning. _Super Mario Kart: Donut Plains 3._ College apps.” 

Phichit is not entirely sure what any of these are. He thinks Victor isn’t, either, but the Fallen leader still lets out an irritated huff before stepping off the ground and into the air. At this, at least, Lee Seung-Gil finally looks bewildered and nervous, although Phichit observes that this is _also_ a good look for him. Lee Seung-Gil makes him feel so confused and dizzy that it hurts. 

“Fine,” Victor snaps. And then he’s gone, disappearing into The Forest. 

 

✦ ✧

 

They try to get back on track. Kenjirou shoves the blanket into Lee Seung-Gil’s arms and runs away. Yuuri smiles nervously until Lee Seung-Gil agrees to eat at least two of Leo’s morning rolls. Yurio announces that he and Otabek are heading to the cliffs to throw down rocks at the pirate ship docked there. The rest of them promptly scatter. 

Phichit declines Guang-Hong’s invitation to visit Town with him and Leo. When Georgi asks him if he’d like to help Georgi try to get the attention of one of the mermaids, Phichit says, “Maybe later.” 

He catches Sara hanging back, standing a few feet away with Mickey and trying to hold back a giggle. 

“Wanna keep watching the new guy,” Sara tells him after Georgi shrugs and leaves. She says it half like a statement, half like a question. 

“Me too,” Phichit breathes. His eyes follow Yuuri and Lee Seung-Gil’s retreating figures. Mickey frowns at his sister.

“I don’t. He’s weird.” 

“We were weird,” Sara reminds him. “We came at the same time. And I’m still the only girl here.” She sighs. “Thought it’d finally be another girl, this time.” 

_Sara Crispino. Sixteen years old. I love my brother Mickey._

_Michele Crispino. You can call me Mickey. Sara loves spicy food, and having her hair combed. And making new friends._

“Wanna be his friend,” Sara shrugs. She grabs Phichit’s hand and pulls him towards The Treehouse, towards Yuuri and Lee Seung-Gil. They hear Mickey sigh before he trails after them. 

“Wanna know what calculus homework is,” Phichit agrees. “For starters.” 

 

✦ ✧

 

Evidently, Phichit does _not_ wanna know what calculus homework is.

“Trust me,” Lee Seung-Gil snorts when Phichit asks him about it. He’s sitting at the base of The Treehouse, has been sitting there for the past hour since Yuuri finally, thoroughly explained What Happens Now. Lee Seung-Gil had inhaled, exhaled, ten times, bowed his head, excused himself to go sit down. 

Phichit, Sara, and Mickey had huddled together and shot glances at him until he stared back at them unblinkingly, one eyebrow raised. 

“Let’s go,” Sara had said, making her way over. “That’s our cue.” 

“That was not your cue,” Lee Seung-Gil had said when they approached him. “You were staring at me. Kinda rude.” 

“Wanna be your friend,” said Sara, unapologetic.

“Wanna know what calculus homework is,” Phichit added. Lee Seung-Gil had swiveled his gaze towards Mickey. 

“And you?” 

“Um. I guess. Wanna ask you to please don’t be mean to my sister?” 

“Mean,” Lee Seung-Gil had repeated. He rolled his eyes. “You guys were the ones staring at me. _Everyone’s_ been staring at me. 

“Because apparently I live here now,” he continued. “Because the cosmos decided to take me from my life and everything I know so that I can be here with you guys, until forever, probably, but that’s okay because we can all be _friends_ and feed each other bread. And forget about Isaac Newton because he doesn’t exist here, which means calculus doesn’t exist here, so I’ve been stressed about my calc final for the past two weeks for no good reason then. 

“But sure. I’m the mean one. The universe stuck me in its literal asshole but me. Me, I’m the mean one,” Lee Seung-Gil rolled his eyes again. “You’re still staring at me. Go figure.” 

The twins had looked more progressively more shell-shocked and scandalized as his monologue wore on. Phichit was breathless, something ballooning in his chest. Something like excitement and desire. Something like longing. Grown-up words. He leaned forward. 

“Lee Seung-Gil,” he said intensely. “Please be our best friend and please tell me about Isaac Newton.”

Lee Seung-Gil leveled him with an unreadable expression. Phichit’s survival instincts were telling him to lean back and retreat, abort mission, swim across The Lagoon and turn himself over to the pirates. Instead, he forced himself to move even closer. 

“Uh,” Lee Seung-Gil said. “I am pretty sure that is not how you ask someone to be your best friend.” 

 

✦ ✧

 

(“Not that I know a lot about best friends. Or friends,” Seung-Gil tells him later, climbing up a rock so that they can get to where Phichit Fell. He heaves the picnic bag Leo packed for them in one arm, reaches down with the other to help Phichit up. 

“Knew,” Phichit corrects. He has to raise his voice, with the waterfall gushing water so loudly next to them. “You know about friends now.” 

They lay out an old blanket, settle on top of the rock. Phichit breaks off a piece of morning roll and holds it up to Seung-Gil’s mouth. Seung-Gil opens his mouth and chews, not even pretending to be annoyed by this anymore, squints his eyes against the sunlight. Phichit watches as a rainbow forms right behind him. 

_We can all be friends and feed each other bread, until forever, probably._

“Isaac Newton, though,” Seung-Gil says after swallowing. “Even I know that’s a mood killer. Math? Not recommended.”)

 

✦ ✧

 

(“I should know,” he mutters when he thinks Phichit isn’t listening anymore.)

(Phichit is always, always listening.)

 

✦ ✧

 

Sara teaches Seung-Gil how to hunt. Phichit thinks there’s no way Seung-Gil’s face could go any paler than it already is, his skin looks smooth and soft to the touch, looks like the moon when Phichit can’t sleep at night because Seung-Gil’s bed is right next to his and he _snores_ , even though he denies it—until Seung-Gil traps his first rabbit. 

“Izzy wanted me to go vegan with her so bad,” he says, mostly to himself. He stuffs the furry body into the game bag, makes a face like he’s about to cry. “PowerPoint presentation and everything. A whole TedTalk. When she could have just asked me to catch my own dinner, jeez.” 

Needless to say, Seung-Gil finds himself better suited to trading. 

He likes The Town a lot, even if it is small. Phichit doesn’t know what Seung-Gil’s talking about; besides The Forest and The Sea, The Town is the biggest part of Neverland. But Seung-Gil says he has always been a “city boy.” Has “never even gone camping before in his life.” Has “no idea how you guys manage to start a fire without a lighter or something.” 

“I mean, obviously the cavemen did it,” he says. 

_Obviously,_ Phichit mouths, shooting Sara a look. She bites back a laugh. Mickey shakes his head and goes back to adding kindling to the fire he’s started to prep for dinner. 

“Two sticks in the dirt or something. Heat and oxygen and... light, I guess, I don’t know. I dropped AP Physics after a week.” 

“Do you ever shut up,” Yurio grumbles as he sits on the log next to Seung-Gil, dumps a bag of picked berries at their feet. Seung-Gil, for the first time ever, actually looks embarrassed. His cheeks and neck flush pink, and Mickey’s barely got the flames going so Phichit knows it’s not from the warmth of the fire. It’s kind of fascinating. 

Victor’s watches silently from a tree stump across the clearing. He hasn’t talked to Seung-Gil again since their... argument? Outburst? He just watches and lets his brow furrow in confusion whenever Seung-Gil speaks, until Yuuri calms him down, until he brushes Victor’s hair away from his face, talks to him in a low voice. Does that thing where he pretends his heart has beat out of his chest and Victor laughs, mimics catching it. 

“No one’s ever told me that,” Seung-Gil confesses to Phichit later. They’re sitting just outside the clearing of The Treehouse, on the shore of The Lagoon, a few feet away from where Seung-Gil Fell. It’s something of a routine now to go here after dinner, around the time the sun’s finished setting. Phichit likes to ask Seung-Gil about all the things he talked about over the day, the things he knows because somehow he _remembers_. 

“Usually it’s JJ who—“ Seung-Gil stops talking to squint at something in the sky. He draws his knees against his chest, drums his fingers on his calves, _tap-tap-tap._

Phichit waits. He has literally all the time in the world. 

“JJ and Izzy were my... friends,” Seung-Gil says like he’s not sure. He kicks at a stray piece of seaweed, digs his toes into the sand. “JJ’s super loud. Like, louder than you.” He shoots a sideways glance at Phichit. “Louder than you after you’ve sipped some Towndrink.” 

“I’m not that loud,” Phichit protests. Seung-Gil scoffs. 

“You’re loud. You’re like freakin’ Uncle Hideki, getting all up into everyone’s face. Loud Drunk Uncle Phichit.” He huffs out a laugh, this deep sound coming from his throat that cracks at the edges, like his body’s not used to making this particular sound. 

“So it’s usually people telling JJ to shut up,” Seung-Gil continues. He makes a face. “It’s usually _me_ telling JJ to shut up. But jeez, I talk so much here. I’m annoying.” 

“You’re not annoying.” 

“I am. I’m annoying to literally everyone except you, because you’re,” he waves hand, “you’re weird. Because you talk more than me, especially when you’re on Towndrink, _Uncle Phichit._ ” Seung-Gil straight up _snorts._ “You were so wasted, do you even remember what—“

“Rude. You’re being rude. Respect your elders,” Phichit whines. Seung-Gil gives a small smile and turns back to the sea. The cliffs are a short distance away. They watch the waves crash against them once, twice. 

“I think I talk a lot here because I’m scared of forgetting,” Seung-Gil admits, voice lowering to a whisper. If Phichit shifts closer it’s so that he can hear him better. “I used to talk in my head, mostly. Would think _a lot,_ about anything. Myself, most of the time. And now I don’t even exist.” 

“You exist.” Phichit touches Seung-Gil’s hand, the one tapping on his knees. They still under Phichit’s hand. “You’re here.” 

“And everyone here forgets.” 

“Except for you. You remember.” 

“I don’t know for how long,” Seung-Gil mutters. He drops his head down on his arms, voice muffled against his sleeve. Phichit shifts closer, closer. “So I say things out loud, like maybe it’ll help me remember better, and won’t let me ever forget. Did you know I can’t remember my dad’s face?” He raises his head to look at Phichit, eyes a bit wild and bottom lip bitten red. “He died when I was little but I had—pictures before, had them on my phone. Now I can’t remember. _My dad.”_

Silent tears slip out of the corners of his eyes as he stares at Phichit, teeth digging fresh marks into his lip, looking expectant. Like it’s Phichit’s turn to know things now.

_Closer, closer._

Phichit reaches with his other hand to swipe a thumb over Seung-Gil’s cheek and wipes away a streak of tears. 

“You’re here.” 

His hand moves, down Seung-Gil’s jaw and over his neck and collarbone. Seung-Gil shivers. His neck flushes pink underneath Phichit’s hand. Phichit feels like fire. 

_Heat and oxygen and... light, I guess._

His hand stops when it gets to Seung-Gil’s chest, right over his heart. 

“You’re here. Your dad’s here. JJ and Izzy, they’re here.” 

Seung-Gil’s eyes close as he breathes in, slow. Exhales. Ten times.

“I’m here, too,” Phichit says softly. “And Sara and Mickey and Yuuri and Victor and everyone else, even freakin’ Uncle Hideki.” Seung-Gil chokes out a laugh. “We forget a lot, we forget almost everything. But the stuff here.” He fists Seung-Gil’s shirt. “This, we always remember.” 

_Closer, closer._

Seung-Gil presses his lips against the corner of Phichit’s mouth. Lingers. When he pulls back, the moonlight is bright against the side of his face, against damp skin and drying tears. Most of the time he looks like the moon but right now his eyes are glittering. 

He looks like the stars. 

“Thank you,” Seung-Gil whispers. 

_No,_ Phichit says later, curled up on his cot with Seung-Gil snoring softly in the bed beside him. He watches the second star blink bright, brighter. _Thank you._

 

[end]

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading :)


End file.
